Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1887-12-15
MOCkFo BY A COUGAR.

EavtnE tort.rN NtmscU Win POISON. tUs
Beast W.na,d Upon His rursuors.
In The Central Park mcnagcric is q
specimen Of the COUGAR
Or mountain lion. The other after
noon two gcutlcmcu stood 10y the cage
the graceful animal rs it
-cSllcSsly moved from ono end of the
cage 20 the other with rythma:cal pre-
cision. Last winter" said one, 81
was shooting in the Sierra Tara Nate
mountains. in Mexico. where from
the signs and tracks in the sand-bot-
toned canyons, these animals wcrc
very ABUNDANT. At night ono would
sit upon the mesa above our camp and
give out hymns for the coyotes TO sing.
1t was m mcarthly yell that made the
goosCilcsh come OH the top OF your
head, and led you To even wish to be
back in the land Of hand organs. My
guide, Jack Bridges, who used TO be
with Custer, would sit up in his blank
cts and say: Go ii when you can, for
W. tLN -N'uts ouo N'N VIZ
For days we looked for tho homo
of The lion. and. although We could sec
his footprints. which appeared like
very biz fourS of clubs. he did so much
rock walking that it was impossible to
track MIN TO his cave. One day we
met a Mexican smuggling outfit, and
the Captain told us that in u canyon
several miles from our camp there was
a hermit lion. whom he never failed to
Get glimpse of when taking tho trail
that way. For years back he had
missed seeing him. but of late he had
noticed ;hat the lion was lame. pro ba-
bly, from having run y cactus point
into his foot. or from jumping too
much out of the way of earthquakes.
The smugslcr described so accurately
where he lion hung ont that we went
over The next morning TO get shot.
The canyon WAS just about the
wOgS! place YOU ever saw The bottom
was a jungle of scrub live oak. so
dense that we had 10 crawl on our
hands and knee, in many places. The
sides were volcanic rock. Jagged and
brokca with holes and crcviceS. Jack
was or ahead. aud at his heels, when
we came face To face with the lion,
who was sitting in the mouth of his
cave ,ryiug 10 stare IT, out OF counte-
nance. He gave one scratch. and then
his long tail disappeared around the
corner vi big bowldcr, just rs we
cot sight of him. Neither had Il chance
TO shoot Half minute later we saw
him 20 limping up the side of the di-
vide, and when he reached the top hc
squa;,cd and looked complaccntly
down att u. He was provokingly out
If shot. aud hc knew it ~ we'll rs we
did.
Then began one Of the most scicn-
tifc hunts on record. We were both
as mad u hornets, Up hill and down
dale re followed that brute until dark.
He was never over one thousand yards
away, but never in shot. He would
rua, and limp and squat. blink at us,
wlsglc mis- tail at u, aud seem to coax
Us 10 follow him. Eleven miles we
won't in bee line from camp, and it
took - until next morning To get
back. We then set To work to put up
a lob on that lion. We went over TO
the canyon where he lived. killed
wh;;c-,ailcd deer took his paunch,
and ;rSilCd il in circle around the
canyon. The carcass we then hung
high on q limb, five feet out from the
trunk. Then we cut mp the deer 5
liver into thirteen bats. for luck, and
,loscd each with Strychninc. We also
rubbed tho poison into the paunch,
which we lcf, at the bottom of the
tree.
I'VE smiled IS we walked back to
camp. and Jack told me OF IN Apache
Indian over Il; Montcauma mining
camp who would tan the lions hide
with dccr'S brains for one dollar: |
kept awake that night for two hours.
thinking whom | would give it to. or
if ! would keep II myself About sum
rise we struck the lions canyon. When
we cot near the deer tree We expected
Ia pick up the lion every step But we
didu'l. lie had been there, though.
H. had eaten up the thirteen poisoned
bats. got away with some of the
paunch, climbed up the tree. stretched
himself out. aud eaten hunks rs big
rs Derby hats out of the decr's carcas
We spent the day in looking for
the dead lion. but could not find him.
When we turned to 60 home we sud-
denly spicd his nibs Squatting down
or top of The divide winSing at us. At
FL Paso told merchant this story,
and showed him what was left of the
poison. lie said that the strychninc
we had bought from the smugglers
81 n. l..